


Where have all the Time Lords gone?

by navaan



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who: Virgin Missing Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Episode: s04e18 The End of Time (2), Gen, Introspection, Stand Alone, Time Lords, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-06
Updated: 2010-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/131018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events in the novel "Goth Opera" the Doctor thinks about some of the things Ruath had to say... Years later, he finally knows the answer to her question. Ties in with the End of Time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where have all the Time Lords gone?

**Author's Note:**

> The story is a missing scene for the DW-novel _Goth Opera_ by Paul Cornell (it has probably two small spoilers for that novel although it doesn't really allude to the main plot) and it has spoilers for the End of Time. Ruath's words are taken right out of the novel (p. 197

The Doctor was standing near the cricket field, watching the players. He and his companions had returned to New Zealand for the match and this time it seemed the girls were not against taking it slow for a few days - even if it involved cricket. The whole ordeal with the vampires had exhausted all of them and now they where coping in there own ways. Nyssa and Tegan talked about their fears and all they had been through.

The Doctor had thrown himself back into the game. But his team had been knocked out of the match a few minutes ago, so frankly there was no need to stay now. Still he had a wager going and the girls could need another day's rest.

He watched them, sitting in the sun and relaxing. Tegan was agitatedly talking about something. Nyssa smiled at her, reassuring, soothing. Everything was going back to normal.

The Doctor looked at the players for a moment and gave a sigh. Nothing to do here. He hated stying still for long. He should go for a walk or back to the Tardis at least for the moment. Let the girls have their day off.

At least he was not a vampire anymore. Ruath was indeed dead. He felt a pang of regret at that.

Why was it that he touched so many peoples lives and didn't find out about it until said people had gone down the worst possible path?

He was thankful for Romana's warning, but he still couldn't stop thinking that Ruath could have been saved. If someone had figured out her obsession with ensuring Time Lord evolution sooner, she could have been stopped.

They had played so many pranks together at the Academy, but it had always been obvious to him that she was not like his slightly younger more insubordinate generation. A lot of them had yearned to leave Gallifrey sooner or later. She on th other hand had been the perfect scientist, doing good in staying on the planet. Or at least she could have done good if she hadn't felt left behind.

He couldn't stop thinking about what she had said about the end of the Time Lords. She had been convinced that in the future there wouldn't be any more Time Lords, no Gallifreyans. There had been only one explanation in her opinion: by then they would have all merged with the Vampires to become something new, in her eyes something better. And she had gone on to make it happen.

The Doctor could only imagine what her success would have brought the universe.

He had understood her fears for the destiny of their race, because since childhood he had wrestled against the stagnating society. With all their knowledge and power Time Lords could have been so much more, but for the sake of traditions they had quenched every form of evolution, made even worse by the decision to isolate themselves from the universe around them. Initially that had been a good path. Restricting their powers in order to not become an evil force. But the isolation hadn't done anything but make them more arrogant and ignorant. The Doctor knew that it was only the beginning of a creeping downfall that had begun long before he was born.

A lot was not right on Gallifrey and sometimes he had thought about what he could have achieved as Lord President. Could he have made a difference?

It was probably not that hard to guess the answer to that hypothetical question. He would have achieved nothing because he would have been trapped inside that system of selfdecay. There was no way that he could have overthrown the system from within. Not with that many traditionalists to oppose him.

It was better to be the renegade thorn in the Time Lords side.

His thought flitted briefly to the Master. There had been a time, when they had dreamed of changing Gallifrey together, but that had been so long ago. The only change he saw now for the Shining World of the Seven Systems was a change for the worse.

He had told Ruath that it was better not to know your own future. Knowing led to misguided attempts to either bring it about (like she had tried) or stop it from happening. Still the vital, fixed points in time would not be changed. Time Lord society was not eternal and one day it would be gone. Humans – now they were really adaptable...

Another day's rest, and then it was time to move on to take another look at the wonders of space and time. Who knew what the future would hold for him? Only a greater fool than him would try to figure that out before it happened. Spoilers had never served anyone.

\---

Years later he stood on the ship of two Vinvocci - thinking about the irony of it all. He remembered Ruath words as if she had spoken them yesterday: _At the point where we stand, there is no sign of there being an active Gallifreyan civilization. Apart from you renegades, running about the cosmos playing out your adolescent conflicts, where have all the Time Lords gone now?_

He knew the answer to that question now – so many years later. The answer had been his future, and he had been right: He had been better off not knowing the future then. Although he had a feeling that somebody had known all along. It made perfect sense now.

The Time Lords had prepared their return, because he had condemned them to eternal death inside the time-locked Time War.

Today he would stop them from coming back, and his own song would be ending. That was where all the Time Lords would be going. Again. Time Lock. One could only hope that it was for good this time around.

He couldn't feel sad about it. The loss of Gallifrey and his species had hurt so much more, when he hadn't known that they would try something like this: deliberately risking earth, the human race and the universe in a selfish attempt to escape their end. It had been easier to live with the guilt of being the killer, the destroyer of worlds and remembering everything that had been good about Gallifreyan Time Lord Society. He had always known that the end would come. But he would have preferred to not have to bring it about twice.

If only the Master could stop for once and listen to him. Really listen and understand... Together they would have enough power to make a difference.

He had told Ruath that it was better not to know your own future and that fixed points in time would not be changed. He had believed it then - but now he _knew_. This regeneration had learned all about it. He had tried to change a fixed point and had failed, lived with the remembrance of nearly becoming something that was just wrong, after damming his own people for the monstrosity they had become during the war. Afterwards he had been running from his own destiny. Nobody should be dammed to know his own fate, especially not him, not now. But there was nothing he could do differently. He knew his song was ending, although he wanted so desperately to cling on.

If the prophecy was meant to come to pass, then it would come to pass. He would never again try and change another fixed point. Lesson learned.

If it was meant to be, today would be the final end of _all_ of the Lords of Time. The end of _his_ time – but not the end of time. He would see to that at the cost of his life. And it would be worth it.


End file.
